A plurality of place: Towards a more inclusive understanding of older migrants’ civic engagement

Discussions about aging in place and civic engagement often revolve around neighborhoods and local communities. However, for older migrants, this perspective might be restrictive, as they often maintain more mobile and transnational lifestyles. A broader conceptualization of place may therefore be needed to explore their civic engagement. This study focuses on the civic engagement of older migrants and the places in which this engagement occurs throughout their lives. It draws on eight life-story interviews (four men and four women) with older adults (minimum age: 60) born in non-European countries who arrived in Belgium in adulthood. Through reflexive thematic analysis, research questions address what places the participants identified as meaningful for their civic engagement, and how they described these places in relation to their civic engagement. Participants engaged civically across a wide range of places, including the home or household, the workplace, neighborhood associations, and digital or transnational places. These may be reciprocal places of mutual support or collective places fostering togetherness and social change. Furthermore, they can provide supportive contexts for civic engagement but may also be sites of friction or tension. This suggests that places are differentially experienced in relation to civic engagement in later life. The discussion highlights participants’ plural understandings of place and the need to value this plurality when studying how places support or curtail older migrants’ civic engagement. The study also calls for a broader definition of civic engagement to foster more inclusive research, policy, and practice.